Poor mental health, police cuts fueled pandemic spike in impaired-driving deaths (IIHS-HLDI)
Shift into Safe
A national mental health crisis and reductions in policing may have helped fuel an increase in impaired-driving deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the role of more liberal alcohol policies was unclear, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows.
“These results reinforce the need for a Safe System approach that incorporates multiple measures to combat impaired driving,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “Sobriety checks and other visible policing efforts can only happen if we have enough officers. We should also boost programs that include treatment for substance abuse and mental health disorders.”
In 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 28% of passenger-vehicle drivers killed in crashes had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or more, the legal limit in most states. In 2020, as the effects of the pandemic set in, that proportion increased to 30% and remained elevated through 2022.
Increases in self-reported depressive episodes and suicide plans and reductions in full-time law enforcement personnel were both associated with rises in impaired-driver deaths, an IIHS analysis of fatal crashes from 2018-22 showed.
The effects of changes in alcohol policy were mixed. Allowing home delivery of alcohol from bars and restaurants was associated with more impaired-driver deaths, but allowing those establishments to sell to-go drinks was associated with fewer.
At the most basic level, the rise in impaired driving was related to an increase in alcohol consumption, studies conducted by researchers from other organizations have shown. In surveys conducted in May 2020, 60% of U.S. adults reported they had been drinking more with the onset of the pandemic. Sales figures for alcohol also showed a higher volume sold from March 2020 to August 2021 than in the same months in 2017-19.
Mental health factors likely contributed to those increases in consumption. During the pandemic, many Americans struggled with the isolation of lockdown, stress related to lack of child care and lost income, anxiety about health risks, and other issues.
A one-point increase in the percentage of adults reporting a major depressive episode over the past year and about a tenth of a point increase in the percentage who reported making suicide plans were associated with 304 and 322 additional impaired-driver deaths per year, respectively, the researchers found.
